A fire broke out in Iran’s Tehran province on Wednesday, with smoke seen rising above a building in the city of Parand, Iranian state broadcaster IRIB reported.
Footage circulating on social media showed a plume of dark smoke billowing into the sky, with early online reports claiming an explosion had occurred at the site. Iranian state broadcaster IRIB later said the smoke was caused by reeds catching fire near a riverbank close to the building.
“The black smoke seen near the city of Parand is the result of a fire in the reeds around the Parand river bank… fire fighters are on site and the fire extinguishing operation is underway”, state media cited the Parand Fire Department as saying. There were no immediate official statements on casualties or damage.
Separately, in Shiraz province, an explosion was heard in a mountainous area on the outskirts of the city, though the cause has not been determined.
The latest blast follows a series of unexplained explosions reported around Tehran in recent weeks. Iranian authorities have not confirmed details of several of those incidents.
US–IRAN WAR IMMINENT?
The explosion comes at a time of soaring tension in the region as the United States has been reinforcing its military presence in the Middle East with additional fighter jets, warships and air-defence systems, amid ongoing talks with Iran over its nuclear programme and the risk of possible confrontation if diplomacy fails.
A military confrontation between the United States and Iran could begin within days and develop into a large, multi-week campaign, according to Axios.
A White House official told Axios that the chances of US military action in the coming weeks were as high as 90 percent.
US forces have been moving significant assets toward the Middle East in recent days. Open-source flight tracking data showed dozens of fighter jets — including F-22, F-35 and F-16 aircraft — heading to the region along with aerial refuelling planes.
This comes as negotiators who met in Geneva for the latest round of talks to ease tensions have reported limited progress and agreed on preliminary principles for a possible agreement, but major disagreements remain over uranium enrichment.
Hours before the talks, Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, threatened the United States, saying Iran had weapons capable of sending American warships “to the bottom of the sea”.
“The Americans constantly say that they’ve sent a warship toward Iran,” Khamenei posted on the social platform X. “Of course, a warship is a dangerous piece of military hardware.”
With inputs from agencies
